Weekend at my Dad's

I get two weeks off of school for Christmas.  It's the only time in the 3 years that I will be in school that I get off unless I request a break.  I am looking forward to those two weeks.  It's kind of strange because the class I am currently in ends next Wednesday and the next class begins on Thursday, 12/13, however, my two week break begins on 12/20.  So I will start a class and have one week and then two weeks off and then go back to the class.  I wish they had just given me the 13th through the 3rd off, and start the new class at that time.  Oh well.  I am happy for the break.

I am still streaking, fully clothed, but at least a mile a day.  Today is day 35 (I haven't run yet, but I will).  Last week there wasn't a lot of running, although I still managed 19 miles.  I'm not really sure how.  Last Sunday, I think I talked about it already, I ran 7 miles and then a friend that was there for dinner said he'd run 2 miles with me after dinner when I asked if anyone wanted to walk because I was so full.  We ended up running 1.73 miles.  Anyway, after that the only other day I ran was Tuesday, and that was 3.1 miles . . . well, I ran 1 mile every other day.  I guess I also ran 3.1 miles on Saturday, which actually was a cool run, but I still was surprised that it all equaled to 19 miles.

I got a call Thursday morning from the school (I think I talked to the school everyday last week), but on Thursday they called to say that Maddox fell and hit his head on the lost and found box and they thought he needed stitches.  The doctor ended up putting 2 stitches in his head, right next to his eye, and then said with his appendectomy and now this, she felt it would be good for him to miss a couple days of school.

Poor guy

I went to my Dad's house on Friday after work to decorate his house with my sister's for Christmas.  He asked us to come forever ago and we figured the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend was a good time to go.  My Mom would have had the house started before Thanksgiving, but she loved decorating . . . and lived there.  So what my Mom would have taken weeks to do, we did in one day, well, not nearly as much as she would have completed. 

She collected nativities, but we didn't put all of them up, I think there were still 5 or 6 that got left out.  She also had a Dicken's Village that is huge.  I put that together with Maddox and my niece, but we didn't get all that up either.  She had so much stuff, it was crazy.  I guess her plan was to expand her table this year, but we didn't make my Dad do that, so I put what I could fit on the table that she used last year. I guess the table last year was so full that there was very little empty space, I didn't attempt to get it all up.  And I didn't use her "snow," that's too much of a mess. 

The bottom picture is my Dad's WSU ornament collection, with a few other sports or farming ornaments thrown in.

The two Christmas decorations that I remember most from my childhood are my Mom's original Nativity and the Advent calendar that she made when my older sisters were little.  We couldn't find either one and we looked everywhere.  My nephew finally found the nativity, but we never did find the advent calendar.  I'm sure my Mom was laughing at us the entire time, but she never told us where it went.  Through the years we've "fought" over who gets the nativity and the advent calendar and my Mom always said she was just going to take them with her.  So we joked about her taking the Advent calendar.

After a very long day I finally got to go for a run.  I had talked to my Dad and my sister about where to run and couldn't decide.  The thing is, my parents live on a hill, so any direction I go, I have to go uphill to get back.  And all the roads are hilly, they don't just live on a hill, they live surrounded by hills . . . and a gravel road.  So I at first thought I'd drive to a town and run somewhere flat, but after the day we had, I didn't really want to go anywhere.  Then my sister suggested that I run towards the highway and then down the highway.  They have been replacing the bridge on that highway for a few months and it's closed.  My Dad's road is the last road before the bridge, so the road is closed there.  I've never run on a state highway before, it was kind of peaceful. 

My sister and her husband decided to drive down to the bridge and go for a walk and then when I got to the bridge they'd take me back.  I was a little worried about the distance (being too far) but as I got closer I realized I should worry about it not being far enough.  I had to turn around and go a little farther to make 3.1. 

My sister and brother-in-law were holding up a stick as a finish line tape, so I put on the Rocky theme song and finished the run.  =)